Better Late Than Never (BaD #6)

A late victory unravels a startling remainder

It’s no secret that I’m not exactly at the forefront of gaming in terms of buying and finishing games when they’re first released for a new console. I was reminded of that yet again earlier this week when I finally finished New Super Mario Bros. on my DS. It had been so long since I first played the game that I forgot all about the initial battle with Bowser in the first castle that leaves him as nothing more than a skeleton. So you can imagine my surprise when I step through the door leading to final confrontation only to see the awesome depiction of Bowser Jr. bringing his dad back to life using that good ‘ol dark Mushroom Kingdom magic. I really liked the idea of fighting a father\son battle as the final conflict to end the game.

I’ve had New Super Mario Bros. since at least 2008-ish (maybe even before that), and I’m just getting around to seeing the end credits. Within the timeframe between then and now, there have been 3 follow-ups to this game spread across 3 successive consoles (Wii, 3DS, Wii U). So the game that I just beat is hardly “New” anymore. Thinking about these facts made me realize just how slow I was to finish the game. It’s not because NSMB was too difficult or anything. I probably could have beat it in a few days if I really put my mind to it. It speaks more to the fact that my handheld gaming has been put on the back-burner. And when I think about it, the same is true of my PlayStation 3.

So where does all my time for enjoying game go? As it turns out, most of it goes to playing retro games so I can review them. The last 4 years in particular have seen a decline with regard to my attention to anything in the current generation. I still haven’t beat Ridge Racer 7-- my first PS3 game. I did make an exception and play through Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune in December 2010, about 2 weeks before I got married. Interestingly enough, I had recently moved into the apartment where we would live and had no internet connection. Therefore, I had no reason to worry about posting reviews and I didn’t feel like writing any. So I used the time to refocus my attention on new(er) games for a while. But as soon we got internet service, *poof*-- it all went out the window mostly and I returned to my retro ways. The only exception is my Wii, but I’m using that for exercise on the Wii Fit Plus. Well, that and Netflix now that the wife signed us up for it last night (thanks babe!).

Since I’ve started participating in the BaD challenge, I must say that I’ve been giving my attention to the current generation of gaming once again. I can’t remember the last time I mentioned anything about the Nintendo 3DS before Monday’s blog. Heck, just blogging in itself has become instantly “current” for me since I’m posting something new every day, and I gotta say...it feels great! I thought I’d never say this any time soon, but it’s refreshing to post non-review blogs for a change-- and more than once a month for that matter.

Realistically though, I know my attention will eventually go back to reviewing classic games and such. But even so, I’ll never completely ignore whatever the current generation has to bring. I know myself well enough to know that it will only be a matter of time before I end up buying the Wii-U console-- especially if they ever made some sort of Zelda collection for it. That’s a great way to bait me. It worked for the GameCube.

Well that’s all for today folks...and it looks like I made it through a week of BaD posts! I’m really excited and feel encouraged to continue doing this throughout the rest of the month. Have a great weekend, and see you all back here on Monday!

Comments (24)

Congrats on beating NSMB!

That's a fun game all around. I can't believe it took that long to make a new 2D Mario game.

I've been if kind of the same boat. Most of my attention this past generation has been on the Wii and especially the DS. Not that I don't enjoy the 360 and PS3 but I've never been one to care about graphics and that's the only new thing I saw these games doing.

New Mario game and graphics

Acutally, I can see why it took Nintendo so long to make a new traditional 2D platforming Mario series in 2006. If you think about it, for the first 10 years of the Super Mario series, his adventures were only depicted in 2D. But when Nintendo released Super Mario 64 to crtical acclaim in 1996, they dedicated their developing experience to creating Mario games that played in a 360 degree environment for the next 10 years.

During that time, if your wanted a 2D Mario side-scrolling adventure, you could only refer to the Super NES and NES games. So 2006 was the perfect time for Nintendo to bring Mario back to his 2D roots while offering new gameplay mechanics. We all ate it up!

Also, agree with you about Sony and Microsoft's consoles just showing off new graphics and not much else in the way of games that interest me. I hate to sound like sound like a Nintendo fanboy, but at the moment, Nintendo is doing a better job of holding my attention. That's just the way it is.

Jamie

I can't blame a tyke for wanting to bring back his dear old dad. Say what you will about Bowser as a bad guy but he did seem to be a decent family man. I always got the feeling he genuinely cared about all his children.

NSMB

Very good game. I don't have it, but I played enough to really enjoy it. The sequel on the Wii is among my favorites on the console.

I'm mostly focused on the Wii, not because I don't like the other two consoles, but because of budget and my folks don't let me have a second console, saying a Wii it's enough (although that was years ago). I could buy them in a near future, but I feel like i'm fine with Steam and if I want to get a console in the future, I would get a Wii U.

NSMB

New Super Mario Bros. is a great game. I also really enjoyed New Super Mario Bros. 2. #2 definitely kept me busy for longer since it was quite a bit more difficult to 100% than the first. It was a good challenge. I lost the case for my copy of NSMB2 during a big move. As a collector, that kind of thing drives me a little nuts.Good luck with beating Ridge Racer 7. As I'm sure you know, that game can be extremely unforgiving at times. I've been tempted to start playing it again since I got a 3D display but $20 for the Ridge Racer 7 3D license seems like a huge rip-off.

Ridge Racer Seven

I actually...

...just got NMSB for a half-decent price not too long ago (blasted evergreen Nintendo titles), although I probably won't be playing it for awhile yet. I've been trying to go through the mainline entries in chronological order, more or less, and I'm on Yoshi's Island right now...

So what is this "BaD" thing? I've seen a few posts about it, but I haven't been on as much recently.

About BaD

BaD stands for "Blog A Day". It's a challenge that two bloggers, Gabe and "Alice in Games" pioneered 4 years ago. Basically, the challenge is to simply post a blog every day (exept weekends) in the month of February. I'm new to it myself this year. You should try it sometime!

Doing these daily ...

... blogs has really freed everyone up to talk about anything. Even for myself, I haven't posted anything since November because I was so focused on just one game. But, now that were in the position to discuss topics on a daily basis, it's far easier to break out of the cycle and do something different.

a dawning realization!

glad to see that your BaD's helped in your realization that you've gotten behind with current games. It's okay if you fall back now and then. There is more to life than retro, best enjoy it while we can before current systems start locking out content that would normally be in the game if it was released during the retro times

I knew you could get thru your first week of BaD. Don't be discouraged, atleast you realized something about yourself and what you write. I'm just trying to keep focused on games. I know it's BaD but I'd like to keep in the realm of gaming argh!